G/TIP VISIT PROBES TRAFFICKING IN INDONESIA

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 JAKARTA 000616 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR G/TIP (JSIGMON) EAP/MTS, EAP/MLS, DRL/IL, DRL/PHD DOL FOR ILAB:BSASSER NSC FOR EPHU E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/26/2018 TAGS: PGOV PREL ELAB ID SUBJECT: G/TIP VISIT PROBES TRAFFICKING IN INDONESIA REF: A. (07) JAKARTA 1560 B. (07) JAKARTA 2921 Classified By: Dep/Pol/C Daniel Turnbull, reasons 1.4(b+d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: During a recent review of trafficking in persons (TIP) projects in Indonesia, a senior G/TIP officer and Labatt observed efforts by police and at grassroots levels to fight trafficking. The USG team talked with a mother fighting for justice against the traffickers who allegedly killed her 15-year-old daughter, and met a policewoman who traveled from North Sulawesi to Papua to liberate teenage girls from bondage and bring them home. Funding and coordination problems clearly obstruct more effective efforts, but the team was impressed by the level of commitment. The visit will assist Mission in crafting tailored projects in this area. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (C) Jane Sigmon, Senior Coordinator for International Programs in the Officer to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (G/TIP),visited G/TIP-funded projects in Indonesia February 28 to March 1, meeting with officials, visiting projects and talking to victims in Jakarta, West Java, and North Sulawesi. She reviewed projects being implemented by the Department of Justice (DOJ),The Asia Foundation (TAF), International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) and International Organization for Migration (IOM). POLICE ACTIVE ¶3. (C) Throughout the visit, the USG team found strong political will by police to eradicate trafficking. The Indonesian National Police (INP) anti-trafficking task force briefed us on an aggressive campaign using the new anti-trafficking law to close down employment agencies which are forging documents in order to traffic children. In the past several months, INP has worked with the Ministry of Manpower and the Overseas Manpower Protection Agency to close down four licensed and unlicensed employment agencies, arresting the culpable job brokers. INP told us they recently arrested an immigration official at the border post with Malaysia of Entikong, West Kalimantan. (Note: This arrest was in follow-up to a visit to Entikong by Labatt and IOM in May 2007 at which we came across children being trafficked across the border. Labatt reported this to INP, per ref A). ¶4. (C) In Cirebon, West Java, the U.S. team attended a community anti-trafficking task force meeting arranged by a TAF grantee. Cirebon police recounted a 2007 trafficking case in which the investigation was impeded by lack of cooperation with local police in Palembang, South Sumatra, where the victims had been trafficked. Police regularly complain of lack of coordination among local police forces. While national police and some provincial police forces are savvy of the new anti-trafficking law, cooperation breaks down at district levels, demonstrating the need for education on the law to reach local police nationwide. RESCUES IN PAPUA ¶5. (C) In the provincial capital of Manado, North Sulawesi, we met with a local policewoman who at her own initiative traveled to Sorong, Papua to rescue 14 young girls from a pub. According to ICMC estimates, some 500 to 700 North Sulawesi ("Minahasa") girls are trafficked to Papua annually. The policewoman told us she located the girls in Sorong by following leads from the girls' families and that she worked with Sorong police to rescue the girls. Resource-rich Papua has traditionally been a major destination point for Minahasa girls but police and NGOs told us community efforts to prevent trafficking and rescue girls have greatly reduced the trafficking to Papua during the past three years. ¶6. (C) Still, traffickers are relentless. While community awareness in many villages is thwarting trafficking, traffickers have diverted to more isolated villages hard to reach with prevention outreach, NGOs told us. However, once JAKARTA 00000616 002 OF 003 parents are informed, they do protect their children from traffickers. Manado police have effectively shut down traffickers transiting victims through Manado but traffickers simply use any of hundreds of other routes, police and NGOs said. Also, many young persons risk taking jobs far from home even though they know the potential hazards, because of their strong desire to find work. "They want to believe they will succeed," a public works official told us at a community meeting on trafficking held in the North Sulawesi mountain town of Todano. ¶7. (C) We talked with the mother of one victim, whose daughter Elizabeth went with an uncle to Jayapura, Papua, two years ago to attend school but was immediately sold into prostitution at a pub. The daughter called her mother in tears but before the family could rescue her, she was killed allegedly by a pub owner, the mother told us. Police did not seriously investigate the case and it took her two years to retrieve her daughter's body, with support by an ICMC-supported NGO, Pippa. Labatt told the mother we would report the case to national trafficking police and ask if the case could be reopened. TWICE TRAFFICKED ¶8. (C) In Jakarta, we talked firsthand with recent victims who had returned from overseas. Migrant Care arranged for us to have lunch with Elly Anita, age 26, recruited for a secretarial position in Jordan but trafficked to Kurdistan, SIPDIS Iraq (see ref B and septel). We also visited the migrant worker transit center at the international airport's "Terminal 3," established a year ago to protect returning migrant workers from touts and ensure their safe passage home. Supervised by the Overseas Manpower Protection Agency (OMPA),OMPA allows Migrant Care to monitor the treatment of returning workers as part of efforts to increase transparency. However, despite Migrant Care's oversight, we witnessed neglect and exploitation of workers. Migrant Care informed us that they have rescued some trafficked workers who upon returning from exploitation overseas are picked up at Terminal 3 by the same job brokers who trafficked them, so that they can be sent overseas again to repay their debt. ¶9. (C) Forced to use official OMPA transportation at inflated costs to return home, workers cannot leave Terminal 3 on their own. We encountered one woman, just returned from a job in Saudi Arabia where she had been beaten, raped, and stripped of all her money and possessions before being sent back to Indonesia, who had been stranded at the terminal for two days because she did not have transport money. We spotted another woman handcuffed to a cot, obviously crazed from whatever happened to her overseas. IOM subsequently assisted both women to receive the medical attention required under Indonesian law. IOM told us that, in contrast, returning workers at the Jakarta seaport actually are well attended to because the Ministry of Social Welfare is responsible for monitoring that point of entry and screens returning workers to ensure trafficking victims are treated. MORE COORDINATION AND FUNDING NEEDED ¶10. (C) In a meeting with the deputy Minister of Women's Empowerment, we learned that the budget for anti-trafficking is still small compared to the need because budgets need to be allocated by each ministry and local governments. Some local governments are increasingly allocating significant funding to counter trafficking but this depends on local awareness of trafficking, with higher awareness existing in areas where USG-funded projects have helped set up local task forces. The new anti-trafficking law has had a significant impact but much more needs to be done in terms of national coordination, awareness raising and funding in order to utilize the full power of that law. The visit will assist Mission in crafting tailored projects in this area. ¶11. (U) Two local newspapers published stories on our discussions with community groups, including one article headlined, "U.S. Embassy Combatting Trafficking in Minahasa." JAKARTA 00000616 003 OF 003 HUME